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Great Music, Bad Behavior: Inside 'Meet Me In The Bathroom,' And New York's Last Real Rock Scene. (Vevo)

New York’s music scene is well known as action central. From punk in the ‘70s to hip-hop in the ‘80s, sounds rise and fall, always introducing us to valuable new artists. The early 2000s, with bands such as the Strokes, Interpol, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs making a name or themselves and revitalizing the alt-rock lingo, was a particularly valuable epoch – a time when audience and artist co-mingled to create a full-on social subculture. One of the best music books of 2017, Lizzy Goodman’s ‘Meet Me in the Bathroom’ is an overview of that era, an oral history that spans 2001-2011 and covers the music’s gritty beginnings, the effect of 9/11 and the internet, the drugs and debauchery, and the love of music that fueled the scene. To understand the nuances a bit better, Vevo’s Kim Taylor Bennett connected with author Goodman, DJ Justine D (a club mainstay of the era), and Interpol guitarist Daniel Kessler at East Village mainstay 2A for an extended round-table chat about what drove the culture,neglected cool bands and local scandals, and whether it was the magical artistic time that many people recall.

Was very surprised The Realistics were left out of this book?? Had me scratching my head. For anyone who was really "there" from the beginning, they are one of the great, lost acts of this tale and a definitive piece of the founding First Wave. LOVED them! It's criminal this author wrote them out of their own history. Having lived it, makes me now question the legitimacy of other music historians.